Gómez de la Serna studied law but never practiced. He devoted his life to literature, publishing his first book in 1904. About 1910 he invented the greguería (the word was accepted into the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), which he defined as “humour plus metaphor”; e.g., “it is only in botanical gardens that trees carry visiting cards.” He also wrote biographies, novels, and plays. Although totally apolitical, he went into exile in Argentina in 1936 and suffered after Perón’s fall in 1955. He founded the important literary magazinePrometeo and wrote more than 100 books and countless articles in leading European and South American newspapers and journals. His Dalí (1977; Eng. trans., 1979) reflects the surrealism of both the artist and the author.